(FILES) - File picture taken September 21, 2009 shows an outdoor screening of Puccini's classic opera Tosca at the Metropolitan Opera House at the Lincoln Center in New York. The Met is embroiled in perhaps its ugliest crisis in 30 years with proposed pay cuts, declining ticket sales, dire reviews and threatened strike action, according to reports July 24, 2014. If no resolution is found by July 31 in a dispute over pay -- which represents $200 million of the Met's budget -- the company has threatened to order the first work stoppage since 1980. As the wealthiest opera company on the planet and the biggest classical music organization in the United States, the Met dwarfs counterparts in Europe with a budget of nearly $327 million. AFP PHOTO/Stan Honda
Foto: El Heraldo
Foto: El Heraldo
(FILES) - File picture taken May 18, 2009 shows guests taking their seats at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York City. The Met is embroiled in perhaps its ugliest crisis in 30 years with proposed pay cuts, declining ticket sales, dire reviews and threatened strike action, according to reports July 24, 2014. If no resolution is found by July 31 in a dispute over pay -- which represents $200 million of the Met's budget -- the company has threatened to order the first work stoppage since 1980. As the wealthiest opera company on the planet and the biggest classical music organization in the United States, the Met dwarfs counterparts in Europe with a budget of nearly $327 million. AFP PHOTO / TIMOTHY A. CLARY
